Your Right to Know

By Nicholas ConfessoreTHE NEW YORK TIMES • Friday January 24, 2014 9:09 AM

The Obama political operation that once buried Hillary Clinton’s White House ambitions is now
rapidly converging around her possible 2016 presidential bid, conferring on Clinton enormous early
advantages in money, expertise and voter-targeting techniques.

Priorities USA Action, a “super-PAC” that played an important role in helping to re-elect
President Barack Obama, announced yesterday that it was formally aligning itself with Clinton and
would begin raising money to fend off potential opponents for 2016.

The group — the largest Democratic super-PAC in the country — also named new directors,
appointments that will cement the group’s pro-Clinton tilt and thrust veterans of Obama’s campaigns
into the center of the post-Obama Democratic Party.

The move marks perhaps the earliest start to big-dollar fundraising in support of a nonincumbent
presidential candidate, providing a fundraising portal for wealthy Clinton supporters eager to help
her White House prospects.

Jim Messina, Obama’s campaign manager in 2012, will serve as co-chairman of the super-PAC and an
affiliated nonprofit, along with Jennifer Granholm, the former governor of Michigan.

Messina joins a growing list of Obama veterans aligning with Clinton: Jeremy Bird and Mitch
Stewart, for example, who led Obama’s field efforts in 2012, are working with Ready for Hillary, a
pro-Clinton super-PAC focused on recruiting small donors and building lists of grass-roots
supporters.

Priorities, by contrast, has begun seeking six- and seven-figure checks to power major
advertising expenditures in support of Clinton — including, if necessary, responses to attacks by
Republicans and conservatives before a formal campaign declaration.